Special Secret
by auntie callisto
Summary: mild violence. A young girl has a secret.


© Laura M. Garcia

August 01, 2000

**_For every generation, there is a chosen one_**

**_She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness_**

**_She is the Slayer._**

**Special Secret**

Momma always told me I was special. She was right. I guess when you turn forty it's impossible to have kids anymore. That's what Momma says the doctors told her. But the doctors were wrong, and one year later, I came along.

'Special'. Sometimes I wonder what that means. I guess it means different things to different people. Does a secret make you special? What if it's not a secret? What if it's a curse instead? 

What if you know something that you wish you didn't know? What if you couldn't tell anybody?

I have a secret.

It's a scary secret, but even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. Nobody does.

I told Momma my secret. She thought I was making up stories. Maybe I shouldn't have told her right after it happened. Maybe I should of waited a while.

Until when? When is the best time to say **:** "Hey Mom, I'm not the little girl you used to know. I'm all grown up. I kill monsters now, see?"

It's true, really. I've been doing it for almost a year now.

Halloween. Last year. That's when my life changed forever.

I was nine years old--I still am nine, but I'm almost ten now. Didn't I tell you? Halloween is my birthday. Does everybody get to play dress-up and beg strangers for candy on **your** birthday? Halloween birthday's are a blast!

But anyway, back to the point. 

It was Halloween of last year, and I just turned nine. Momma said I could go trick-or-treating with my friends Russell and Suzie, as long as we were back before dark.

"Yea, yea, we know," I said, reciting from memory, " **'**Be back by six, stay together, don't talk to strangers, don't eat our candy until you check it...**'** "

We each had spare masks in our bags, so we could hit each house twice. You know, those plastic ones that come with the cheap vinyl costumes? Yea, those. Anyway, we had left right after school but most of the people weren't ready just yet. So instead of making two trips, we had to make three. We were just making our third rounds when Russell had a "brilliant" idea. "Let's go hang out at the cemetery!"

"No, way, man!" Suzie complained. She's a year younger than Russell and me, and she's a scaredy-cat. I looked at Russell and smiled. "Yea! Great idea!" He looked at his watch. "It's only four, let's drop off our candy. When we get back, maybe your mom will be done checking it all."

After we had left my house again, Suzie started to complain. She whined all the way to the subway station. Russell had waited until the train started to move before he told Suzie that she could go home if she wanted to. She started to cry. I guess he thought it was funny. Russell is a jerk sometimes.

We got off the train as the sun was starting to set. "It's only 4:30" Russell said, when I asked him. "Are you sure?"

"Yea."

None of us had ever been to the cemetery before. We had passed by, but none of us had ever been inside, so we didn't know where to get in. There was a wooden fence all the way around, but no gate door. **Oh, well**, we figured and climbed the fence.

I don't think it was what any of us expected. Cemeteries are supposed to be ugly and un-kept. This one was pretty and clean and not scary at all. "What a bust!" Russell moaned.

"Maybe not," I said, pointing, "Look." Russell and Suzie looked to what I was pointing at. "What is it?" Suzie asked. "It's, like, a museum, or something, right?"

"Mozz-o-lee-um" I corrected him. "Yea, whatever, same difference," he shrugged.

The building stood in the middle of the cemetery, but it was the only thing that was un-kept. Vines covered most of it. The vines were covered with cobwebs. "Whatever's in there, I bet nobody's seen it for a long time," I said.

I got a funny feeling in my stomach. The hairs on my arms stood up and I got a chill down my spine. "Let's go inside," Russell said. So we did.

Something made me nervous. Maybe it was because the door was unlocked when we tried to open it. Or maybe it was the coffin in the middle of the room. 

"Cooooooool..." Russell said. Suzie was whining again. "I wanna go home...". I started to walked over to the large coffin. It was made of wood, and it looked really new. When we got closer it shook. Suzie got scared and almost ran away, but Russell grabbed her. 

I got that weird feeling in my stomach again, but it felt a lot stronger. I kept walking towards the coffin, because I couldn't stop myself. My legs had a mind of their own. The coffin shook again. Suzie kept biting her nails and looking back at the door. Russell spoke up, "Maybe they buried somebody alive, on accident." **Did they? **I thought. Something was definitely alive in that coffin, and it was trying to get out. I opened the lid.

There was nothing in there but a dead man. All of a sudden, he sat up and grabbed me by the neck. He looked at me with ugly yellow eyes. His mouth opened to show his fangs and he hissed at me, squeezing my neck tight. He was a vampire. I knew it was the truth. I'm old enough to know what I see when I see it, but I'm still young enough to believe my own eyes.

He stood up and got out of the coffin, taking me with him. Something inside of me said that I shouldn't run. I should kill him, I should destroy the evil. The vampire tried to bite me, but he stopped and hissed. I suddenly knew why. I yanked my cross off and shoved it in his face. It was a stupid thing to do, but I didn't know any better.

He grabbed it and tossed it aside. There was a small cross-shaped burn on his hand now. He thought I was defenseless, so he tried to bite me again. I listened to that voice inside of me and kicked forward with both legs. He dropped me and went flying backward, smashing the coffin to pieces.

He got up and was angry. I barely had time to notice that Russell and Suzie were gone. Then he was right in front of me. He hit me hard with the back of his fist. It hurt a lot. He was strong, but I'm strong too. I have a special power inside of me that makes me stronger than a normal person. I think I was born with it. But the vampire didn't know that. He lunged at me. I did a backwards flip, kicking him in the face.

**I guess I should tell you right now that until then, I'd never been in any kind of fight before. When I'm fighting a vampire, it's like all time slows down and I know what to do next. I become very aware of what's around me and how to use it to my advantage. What ever it is that gives me this strength also tells me how to fight these evil things.**

He staggered back from the blow. I took his head and introduced it to my knee. Then I brought my elbow down, grinding it into his back. He growled, then he grabbed me and threw me. I slid across the floor a few feet. My head hit the wall. For a second, I couldn't think because of the pain. The vampire was slowly walking towards me.

Something sharp was sticking into my hand. It was a pieced of splintered wood from the smashed coffin. He didn't see me pick it up. He pounced on me and it was over as simple as that.

Ever seen a vampire die? It's really gross. First, the body melts into a puddle of goo. Then the goo kind of dissolves away. There's a nasty smell too. That's how the young ones die. Sometimes they burn up. The older ones just turn to dust. My costume was ruined, but none of the goo had gotten on my clothes underneath it.

Russell and Suzie had run away as soon as the vampire had moved. They thought he was a hobo or a crazy person. It's a good thing they never found out the truth. I got in trouble for getting home late, and for losing my cross. Momma said that it was blessed by a priest on the day I was baptized. I've had it all my life. It can't be replaced. So, I went back the next morning to get it. Long after sun up.

My name is Caitlin, and this is my secret.

I am The Slayer.

DISCLAIMER: This is my first Buffy: TVS fic....okay, so this isn't really a Buffy fic. It's a Buffy spin-off. Either way, Buffy does not belong to me, but Caitlin does. And since I'm not making any money off of this, I'll settle for feedback. E-mail me @ auntiecallisto@yahoo.comand tell me your opinion. Good? Bad? Ugly?


End file.
